


The Call

by pigeonking



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, cosmic horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 11:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10385550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pigeonking/pseuds/pigeonking
Summary: The Doctor and Peri meet H. P. Lovecraft and some of the monsters that inspired his works.And there's a bit of Doctor/Peri shipping in there too because I totally do ship them... almost as much as I ship Rarity and Applejack!





	

Tendrils of mist rolled along the rickety wooden pier that stretched out into the harbour of the Innsmouth docks. The waters were calm and not a seagull could be seen nor heard. Dawn had broken but an hour ago, but the fog and the heavy clouded sky shed no light upon what was promising to be another dreary day.

At the end of the pier tiny particles of dust were snatched into the air by a sudden gust of wind as the space/time vortex was rent apart by a howling, grinding cacophony of noise that heralded the arrival of a blue police telephone box fading into existence with its light flashing busily on top.

Once the box had solidified and the light had stopped flashing the door opened and out stepped a tall man with curly fair hair, dressed in a colourful long coat over yellow and black striped trousers. A badge depicting a smiling yellow cat was pinned to his left lapel.

The man left the door open and leaned against one side of the box, letting out a hefty sigh as he did so.

This was the Doctor and he was currently engaged in a past time that he wasn’t too fond of… patient waiting. His young friend Peri Brown had rushed off to the TARDIS wardrobe to get changed almost the exact second that he had announced their arrival on Earth in the year 1925. He supposed that it was a good thing that she was going to make the effort to blend in with the locals, but he had noticed that human women… correction… any women of any species, always took their time when changing into a new outfit.

Their arrival in 1920s New England, America was one of the TARDIS’s accidental arrivals and had not been planned. If it had been then Peri could at least have changed before the landing. They had actually been trying to go to Spiridon where the Doctor had intended to show off some of the planets exotic plant life to the young American botany student. Peri had not been too disappointed by the TARDIS’s mistake. Sometimes the Doctor had his doubts about Peri’s dedication to her botanical studies.

While he waited the Doctor looked around at his surroundings. He took in the all-encompassing mist, the still waters and the surprising lack of any gull activity. There was something very odd about this place. Perhaps this would not be a wasted trip after all.

Suddenly, without any warning the Doctor clutched his head and cried out in agony as he felt his mind being assailed by some sort of psychic assault. The Doctor fell to his knees. In his mind’s eye he saw himself sinking slowly down through murky waters. So bad was the murkiness that the Doctor could barely see what was three feet in front of him. Shapes writhed and danced around him, but the Doctor could not discern what they were. There was also a sound… a voice saying the same word over and over again. Though the voice echoed in the Doctor’s head, he could not make out what the word was. Then the Doctor’s feet touched the bottom and his descent ended. The Doctor looked around him, but could still see nothing. Even the shapes had gone. Then right in front of him a huge yellow orb appeared as big as an elephant and split down the middle by a black oval slit. The Doctor realised that this was an eye that had opened and that was now gazing back at him malevolently. And then all of a sudden the word that he had been hearing became startlingly clear…

“SOON!!!”

Then the eye was gone and the Doctor felt himself drifting up again, floating with increasing urgency back towards the surface and there was another voice, urgent and concerned… more familiar.

“Doctor! Are you alright? Doctor! Doctor wake up!!!”

The Doctor opened his eyes. He was lying on his back and a pretty young girl with short brown hair, dressed in a rather fetching red 1920s dress, was knelt beside him, slapping his face in an effort to revive him.

“Yes, thank you, Peri! You can stop slapping me now!” the Doctor proclaimed haughtily as he tried to sit up.

“Well it’s good to see you’re your usual self!” Peri snapped as she helped him to his feet, “No lasting effects there! What happened to you? You had me worried there for a minute.”

“I had a vision, Peri. A very powerful psychic assault on my senses.” The Doctor explained.

“A vision? Well what did you see?” Peri asked.

The Doctor described in detail everything that he had experienced in his vision.

“An eye as big as an elephant?” Peri shuddered. “I’m not sure I want to meet what that belongs to!”

“No, neither do I!” the Doctor confessed. “But I have a feeling that we’re going to before we’re finished here, Peri.”

“Well, can’t we just get back in the TARDIS? Exotic alien plants on Spiridon are looking more and more enticing by the second!” Peri replied.

“We can’t just leave, Peri! This town… nay, the entire planet could be in danger from this mysterious elephant-eyed menace. If we leave now then you may well not have a 1980s to return to ever again.” The Doctor told her.

“It’s that serious, huh?” Peri pouted in disappointment.

“I’m afraid so.” The Doctor replied. “We must stay.”

“So what do we do now?” Peri wondered.

“We go back into the TARDIS.” The Doctor declared.

“But you just said…” Peri began.

“Not to leave, but to do a little research of the local history in the TARDIS databanks. We’ll see if there is anything in there that can tell us where to focus our investigations.” The Doctor explained.

With those words he disappeared back into the still open police box.

Peri rolled her eyes and followed him inside.

 

The Doctor was stood at one side of the hexagonal control console in the TARDIS, absorbing the information on the computer screen in front of him. Peri was sat in a high backed wooden chair, absently fiddling with her hair as she waited.

“Innsmouth was founded by English settlers in 1643. In 1725 a mysterious ball of light was witnessed by several people falling from the sky and into the sea. No explanation is given anywhere in these archives as to what that ball of fire could have been. More recently in the last eighteen months ten visitors to Innsmouth have mysteriously disappeared. According to the local newspaper, the _Innsmouth Herald_ all ten of them had stayed at the same hotel in Innsmouth prior to their disappearance. Local authorities raided the Arkham Hotel after the third disappearance, but were unable to find any evidence of foul play.” The Doctor had been reading aloud, but he finally looked up from the screen and turned his gaze upon Peri.

“Well that settles it, Peri!” he declared with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Settles what?” Peri asked.

“We must check ourselves in as guests at the Arkham Hotel!”

 

The Doctor and Peri had walked from the TARDIS and through the streets of Innsmouth on their way to the Arkham Hotel. The houses and buildings which they passed were unkempt and dilapidated. Roof tiles were loose or uneven, brick work was chipped and any houses that had been painted were now peeling and in need of retouching. They saw a few people walking the streets going about their business, but even they looked tired and worn out, as if none of them had slept properly in a good long while. These people paid little to no attention to the Doctor and Peri. Some gazed wearily at them, but none made any effort to greet them or engage them in any kind of conversation.

“I feel like we’ve walked into Night of the Living Dead!” Peri dead-panned humourlessly.

“That film hasn’t even been made yet!” the Doctor observed wryly.

“Well George Romero must’ve visited this town at some point and been inspired!” Peri replied; she suddenly broke into a grin. “Hey, how come you know Night of the Living Dead?”

“I have been known on occasion to watch the odd film now and again, Peri. I’m not entirely uncultured, you know!” the Doctor answered with a smirk of his own.

Not long after this exchange the two time travellers finally found themselves standing before the monolithic edifice that was the Arkham Hotel.

Peri was reminded of the Addams Family’s house or the Bates Motel when she looked upon the building that they were about to enter.

“Well, come along!” the Doctor said, “We can’t stand here all day.”

He offered Peri his arm. With a certain degree of reluctance Peri linked her arm in his and they walked up the stairs into the building.

The carpet that they walked upon as they stepped into the reception looked like it had not been vacuumed for weeks. The reception desk sat between two red carpeted staircases that went up and met onto a landing that was enclosed by a wooden bannister. Behind the desk there stood a tall skinny man in a black suit and tie with slicked back dark hair and a neatly waxed moustache. His eyes were a startlingly piercing blue and they appeared to bore deep into Peri’s soul as she looked into them.

Peri tore her gaze away from his and resisted the urge to turn and flee from the hotel. She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to stay in this place of their own free will. Yet that was exactly what she and the Doctor were planning to do. Resigned to her fate Peri decided to seize the initiative. This was a small harbour town in the 1920s. Tongues would wag if a strange man and a woman were to check into a hotel together with separate rooms and under separate names. It would be better to put on a show for the casual on looker so as not to draw too much unwanted attention. Peri disengaged her arm from the Doctor’s and caressed his hand affectionately. This action did not go unnoticed by the Doctor who stared in wide eyed amazement at her, but said nothing.

“Follow my lead and leave the talking to me!” Peri said to him through gritted teeth as discreetly as she could manage.

“My husband and I are passing through your quaint little town and would like to stay in one of your rooms during our visit. Is there one available?” Peri asked the desk clerk with her sweetest smile plastered across her face.

“Certainly, ma’am. We have several double rooms for you to choose from; we don’t get many guests pass through here you see. Would you like a view overlooking the harbour?” the clerk asked in his thin, oily voice.

“Yes, that would be delightful!” the Doctor cut in before Peri could answer.

“Very good, sir!” the clerk fixed his blue eyes upon the Doctor and offered him a smile which only served to enhance the unnerving quality of his gaze. “Could I just ask you to sign into the guest book, Mr…?”

“Doctor!” the Doctor corrected, “Smith, John Smith. And this is my lovely wife, Perpugilliam. Peri for short.” He took the proffered book and pen and signed his name.

“A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Smith.” The Clerk replied; then he turned his eerie smile upon Peri. “Mrs Smith!” He took her hand and kissed it tenderly.

Peri withdrew her hand as tactfully as possible and tried to hide her revulsion behind her smile.

“Please, call me Peri!” she declared with a cheerfulness that she wasn’t sure she felt. She then signed her name into the book under the Doctor’s.

The signatures made, the clerk took back the book and plucked a key off the rack of hooks behind him.

“Room 36.” The clerk declared. “I am the manager of the Arkham by the way, Obadiah Crane. Dinner will be served in the dining room at 6:30.” He indicated a doorway off to the left. “Breakfast is served in the morning from 8:30 until ten o’clock. If you need anything then there will always be someone here in reception to serve your needs. I see you have no bags, but the bell boy will, nonetheless, show you to your room.”

Obadiah rang a bell on the counter and a young fair haired man wearing a dusty red bell boy’s uniform and hat came out from the direction of the dining room. He had the same piercing blue eyes as the manager which made Peri wonder if the two were somehow related.

“Victor, please show the Smiths to room 36 if you’d be so kind, please?” Obadiah said.

“This way, sir. Ma’am.” Victor said quietly and led them up the stairs.

“It seems we’re not the only guests here, Peri.” The Doctor uttered discreetly as he walked arm in arm with the young American behind Victor.

“What makes you say that?” Peri whispered in reply.

“There was another name in the guest book above ours. Apparently he checked in yesterday and he’s still here. You might have heard of him. His name is H. P. Lovecraft!” the Doctor declared.

“Am I supposed to know who that is?” Peri replied sardonically.

“Peri!” the Doctor could barely contain his outrage, “Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one of the most influential writers of horror fiction of the 20th Century!”

“I was always more of a Stephen King fan myself.” Peri shrugged.

“Stephen King just happens to be one of the many who was influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft.” The Doctor informed her as if he were a professor lecturing an unruly student.

Their hushed conversation was interrupted when Victor the Bell Boy came to a halt in front of one of the many doors in a long dimly lit corridor.

“Room 36.” The Bell Boy announced meekly. He unlocked the door for them and stood aside to allow them entrance.

The room that the Doctor and Peri entered was spacious enough to contain a grand four-poster bed, a wardrobe and dressing table against the left wall and a little chair by the bed. The veranda windows opened onto a balcony that had a view of the harbour as the Doctor had requested and there was a door that led into an en-suite bathroom.

“Splendid! This will be ideal for a couple of nights, thank you very much.” The Doctor enthused.

Victor handed the Doctor the key then turned and departed, closing the room door behind him.

“Well that was strange!” Peri remarked after he had gone.

“What was?” the Doctor wondered.

“He didn’t wait for a tip. Bell Boy’s always wait for a tip.” Peri explained.

“Yes, I see what you mean. Very odd indeed.” The Doctor agreed. “Still it might be something completely innocent. Perhaps he’s a rare example of a human that isn’t obsessed with money!”

“Hey! Human Being present in the room, thank you very much!” Peri rebuked him with a smirk and a playful punch on the arm.

The Doctor rubbed his arm gingerly. “That was some very quick thinking down there, Peri. We will indeed draw less suspicion and attention if we pose as a married couple. I must admit that I would never have thought of it myself.” He told her.

“Well we bicker like an old married couple anyway a lot of the time so I didn’t think we’d have any trouble convincing anyone!” Peri grinned. It was rare indeed to receive such praise from the Doctor and she was happy to bask in it for as long as she could.

“Of course, Peri, you do realise the significance of the circumstances that we find ourselves in?” the Doctor proclaimed with a sudden change of subject.

Basking over, Peri asked the question that she knew the Doctor wanted her to ask.

“What on Earth are you blathering on about now, Doctor?”

“I do not blather!” the Doctor declared indignantly, “I was, of course, referring to the fact that H. P. Lovecraft is present in a town called Innsmouth; a town that he featured more than once in his stories and novellas. Don’t you realise what that means?”

“That he really, really liked it here and couldn’t stop raving about it?” Peri asked knowing full well that it wasn’t the answer the Doctor was after.

“No, no, no! It means that something big is going to occur here that will inspire many of Howard’s future works and we are going to be here to witness it. Taking into consideration some of Howard’s later works that means that whatever is here is very big and very nasty. I must warn you, Peri… this probably isn’t going to be very pleasant.” The Doctor replied.

“Oh great! We must have landed on a Tuesday!” Peri drawled with heavy sarcasm.

“Actually I think it may be Wednesday.” The Doctor corrected, entirely missing the point.

“So we should probably go and say hi to Howard then if he’s going to be involved in this somehow.” Peri suggested.

“Hi? Hi?? Hi??? Yes… well, I suppose we should. Come along!”

The Doctor abruptly left the room and Peri set off after him.      

 

“We don’t even know which room he’s gonna be in!” Peri protested as she struggled to keep up with the Doctor.

“Of course we do!” the Doctor replied without breaking his stride. “It was in the book right next to his signature. He’s in room 42 on the floor above us. You really must try and be more observant, Peri!”

They were heading upstairs now and Peri screwed her face up as she bit back an angry retort to the Doctor’s comment.

“Well how do we know he’s even going to be in there right now?” she said instead, her voice barely concealing her displeasure.

“There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there.” The Doctor replied rather patronisingly.

They had arrived at room 42 and the Doctor promptly knocked on the door.

Soft footsteps were heard on the other side and then there was the sound of the key being turned.

As the door was being opened the Doctor turned a smug ‘I-told-you-so’ smile upon Peri.

Peri just glared back at him and stuck her tongue out.

By the time the door was fully open they were greeting the man before them with the cheesiest fake smiles that they could muster.

“Mr Lovecraft, I presume?” the Doctor beamed wider than the cat on his badge.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a long looking man in every respect; tall and skinny with a long face, long, protruding ears and short brown hair. His long nose was the most prominent aspect on his sunken features and he was dressed smartly in a black suit and tie. Peri found him to be rather creepy and had no difficulty in believing that this weird looking skinny man was a writer of horror fiction. She couldn’t picture him doing anything else.

“You presume correctly, sir, though I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am, but I haven’t the faintest idea who you are!” Howard replied, eyeing the Doctor and Peri with mild curiosity and not a little suspicion.

“I’m the Doctor and this is… my wife, Peri.” The Doctor introduced them.

“You paused just before telling me that she was your wife.” Howard observed, “Are you sure that’s what she is to you?” The ghost of a smile played across his sallow features.

Peri glared at the Doctor who squirmed uncomfortably beneath her gaze.

The Doctor lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Alright, Mr Lovecraft… Peri isn’t my wife; she’s just my assistant…” Peri’s glare darkened; if she had been able to shoot laser beams out of her eyes then the Doctor would no doubt be regenerating right now. The Doctor ploughed on with his explanation, steadfastly ignoring Peri’s attempts to kill him with her stare. “We’ve come here to investigate a series of disappearances that have been linked to this hotel for the last eighteen months. That’s why you’re here too isn’t it?”

Howard looked at the Doctor and seemed to come to a decision within his mind.

“Come in, quickly!” he stood aside and ushered them into his room. “We must be very careful that no one sees or hears us together.”

Howard closed the door behind them.

“Please, please… sit down.” He instructed.

The Doctor and Peri obligingly sat side by side on Howard’s single bed while Howard himself sat down in a high backed wooden chair facing them. Prior to this the Doctor had observed that Howard’s room also had a good view of the harbour… deliberate, of that he was certain.

“I knew nothing of these disappearances before I came here yesterday. I only found out about them after speaking with some of the locals today. Many of them have advised me to leave Innsmouth before I disappear too.” Howard told them.

“Then why did you come to Innsmouth if not to investigate the disappearances?” Peri wondered.

“Would you believe me if I told you that I was ‘called’ here by some sort of psychic vision that assailed me whilst I sat writing at my desk at my home in Providence not two days ago?” Howard confided.

“You would be surprised what we would believe, Mr Lovecraft.” The Doctor assured him.

“What did you see in your vision?” Peri asked.

“Like I said, I was writing at my desk when all of a sudden I was overcome by the sensation that I was sinking in deep, murky waters, surrounded by shifting mysterious shapes. A single incoherent voice resonated within my head, one word over and over again, but at first I could not discern what that word was…” Howard began.

“Then you found yourself standing on the sea bed. The shapes were gone and there in front of you there opened a huge yellow eye as big as an elephant… and the voice said ‘Soon’… am I right?” the Doctor finished for him, recognising Howard’s vision as being the same as his own.

“That’s right entirely!” Howard confirmed in amazement. “Except the voice said ‘come’… not ‘soon’. You have had a similar vision?”

“I did indeed. That is why we’re here.” The Doctor replied.

“I don’t get it.” Peri interjected. “Why would you voluntarily come here, just on the say so of a huge evil yellow eye?”

“Curiosity more than anything else, I suppose.” Howard admitted. “Plus there seemed to be some sort of pull that drew me here. After all… the voice didn’t tell me to come to Innsmouth, but yet here I am. The day after I received the vision I got on a train not knowing where exactly I was heading to. I remember the conductor being very much perplexed that I was not able to furnish him with a precise destination for my journey, yet when the train passed into Innsmouth station I just knew on a deep instinctual level that this was where I needed to be. That is how I came to book into this very hotel too.”

“And something compelled you to ask for a room with a view of the harbour too didn’t it?” the Doctor said, already knowing what the answer would be.

“Yes, that’s exactly right.” Howard confirmed. “Well, in the vision that we have shared we were both sinking into deep waters, therefore, it stands to reason that whatever creature has compelled us here is out there somewhere under the sea, waiting for its time to emerge.”

“Yes, I think you’re right.” The Doctor agreed. “But what is the connection between that creature and the disappearances at this hotel?”

“Perhaps we should join forces in order to try and find out?” Howard suggested.

“Yes, Mr Lovecraft, I think that would be a very good idea indeed!” the Doctor concurred.

“In that case, if we’re going to be working together, perhaps you’d like to start calling me Howard?” Howard replied with a wry smile.

The Doctor smiled back. “Howard it is!”

“It is getting late now.” Howard observed, peering out of the window at the harbour which looked even more foreboding in the waning daylight. “I don’t think it would be wise to venture too far abroad at night while we’re in Innsmouth. I suggest we stay in our rooms for tonight and recommence our investigations come the morning.”

“You won’t get any arguments from me!” Peri replied with a shudder.

The Doctor looked crestfallen as if he’d been looking forward to some nocturnal snooping.

“Oh, well, if you two want to lock yourselves in your rooms all night then I won’t stop you, but I was thinking of taking a walk round the harbour after the sun has set to see if I can find anything.” He proclaimed.

“You know full well that I’m not about to let you go waltzing off into God knows what, all by yourself. I’m coming with you!” Peri insisted.

“Oh, well, if you insist.” The Doctor replied, trying to look like he couldn’t care less if she came or not and failing miserably.

Howard rose from his chair and crossed over to the drawer by his bed which he opened.

“If you two are going to insist on going out there after dark, then I must insist that you take this with you!” he declared, pulling out a revolver from the open drawer.

“I never carry handguns, thank you, Howard.” The Doctor declined.

“I’ll take it!” Peri said standing up to accept the proffered weapon.

Howard handed it to her. “There are six bullets in the barrel and one in the chamber. I pray that you will not need to use it.”

“Thanks.” Peri replied as she concealed the gun inside her ample cleavage.

“Since you are going to be going down to the harbour tonight I feel it is my duty to share one other thing with you.” Howard continued.

“Oh? What would that be?” the Doctor wondered, his curiosity aroused.

“Last night I sat up in my chair looking out of my window at the harbour. For a long time I saw nothing worthy of note, but then just as I was ready to retire and call it a night I saw something in the misty waters that caught my attention.” Howard began.

“What was it?” Peri asked.

“I observed what appeared to be a man emerging from the water. He climbed up a ladder onto the pier and then disappeared into the night. I’m afraid it was dark and he was too far away so I cannot give you a clearer description as to what he looked like.” Howard finished.

“Most interesting indeed.” The Doctor mused. “Come along, Peri. Let’s go and see if we can have ourselves a close encounter with this mysterious man from the sea.”

With those words they took their leave of Howard and set off to begin their nocturnal snooping.

 

The Doctor and Peri passed through the reception on their way to exit the hotel. Obadiah, the manager, was nowhere to be seen, but Bell Boy, Victor stood in his place behind the reception desk.

He said nothing as the Doctor and Peri exited the hotel. Peri took a hold of the Doctor’s hand so that it would look like husband and wife were popping out for a romantic twilit stroll.

As soon as they were outside and away from Victor’s gaze she released the Doctor’s hand and they walked side by side in the direction of the harbour.

“I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to maintain this touchy-feely charade!” Peri remarked dryly. “I guess I’m lucky I haven’t had to kiss you yet.” She added this last part with a mischievous smirk.

“I think you’ll find that I am the lucky one where that is concerned!” the Doctor replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’m a pretty good kisser, thank you very much! You’d be lucky and privileged to lock lips with me, buster!” Peri retorted indignantly.

“I’ll take your word for it.” The Doctor remarked with a wry smile.

“Right, that does it!” Peri fumed. Without warning she grabbed the Doctor by the lapels of his coat and pulled his face down to hers, planting a long passionate kiss upon his lips. The Doctor flapped his arms about like a colourful penguin, uncertain as to where to put them until finally Peri released him and broke away with a smug, triumphant look on her face.

“There! Tell me that didn’t rock your world, Doctor!” she said with a smile.

“It was certainly an experience I shan’t soon forget, but probably not for the reasons that you’re hoping for.” The Doctor replied as he straightened his coat and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Whatever!” Peri sighed and walked off towards the harbour.

“Oh and Peri!” the Doctor called after her as he followed to keep up. “Please don’t ever do that again unless you absolutely have to, are we clear?”  

“Crystal!” Peri muttered under her breath.

Not long after they arrived at the harbour and the pier where they had left the TARDIS.

“You do realise.” The Doctor remarked suddenly, “That while you were man handling me back there you could have accidentally set off the gun concealed upon your bosom and seriously wounded or killed one of us.”

Peri rolled her eyes. “That’s hardly likely, Doctor, please!”

“I’m just asking you to exercise more caution whilst you have that weapon concealed upon your person.” The Doctor maintained.

“Relax, Doctor! I’m not going to kiss you again, okay?” Peri snapped.

The Doctor eyed her suspiciously. “Okay.” He finally replied with a note of uncertainty.

“At least with the TARDIS nearby we’ll have somewhere safe to run to if we get into any trouble.” Peri observed in an effort to change the subject, she was beginning to wish that she hadn’t kissed the Doctor. But her womanly pride had been at stake and she had acted on impulse. She didn’t even fancy the Doctor that way. Not really. So why was she so bothered by the Doctor’s apparent indifference? Luckily she was spared having to dwell on it further as the Doctor strode off down the pier towards the TARDIS and she set off after him.

“That’s an excellent idea, Peri. We can just go into the TARDIS now and observe what’s going on outside via the scanner. You’re full of bright ideas today! Must be my cooking.” The Doctor was saying as they approached the police box.

He unlocked the door and they went inside.

“You know something has just occurred to me.” Peri said as they entered the control room and the Doctor closed the doors behind them.

“Do share, you seem to be on a roll today.” The Doctor replied.

“Well, considering Howard has a view of the harbour and was possibly in his room when we arrived earlier, do you think that he could have seen when the TARDIS arrived?” Peri wondered.

The Doctor paused for a moment as if thinking deeply about what Peri had just asked him.

“Surely he would have said something if he had seen us.” He mused out loud.

“Perhaps we can ask him when we see him again tomorrow.” Peri suggested.

“Perhaps.” The Doctor conceded doubtfully. He flicked a switch on the console and the scanner came on with a view of the misty harbour waters outside.

Peri pulled up a chair where she could sit and watch the scanner and sat down. The Doctor soon joined her with a chair of his own and their vigil began.

 

“I wonder why Howard was singled out for attention by this eye-thing and called to Innsmouth?” Peri’s sudden question broke the tedium that had set in over the last hour and a half of scanner watching.

“Fate works in mysterious ways, Peri.” The Doctor replied. “Something is going to happen here that will inspire Howard to write many of his most well-known stories. Perhaps he has some latent psychic ability that renders him susceptible to this creature’s call.”

“If that’s the case then I’m glad I don’t have any latent psychic abilities!” Peri remarked dryly.

Suddenly the Doctor suddenly stood up from his chair.

“Of course! That’s it! Oh, Peri I have been such an idiot!” he exclaimed excitedly.

Peri was on her feet too.

“What is it? What’s it??” she wondered.

“The call! That gives us a clue as to what we’re up against, Peri. The clue is in the title of one of Howard’s future stories that he hasn’t written yet. The call! The Call of Cthulhu!” the Doctor declared triumphantly. Then his face fell. “Oh dear.”

“Oh dear, what?” Peri demanded. “What is Cthulhu, Doctor?”

“Something very big and nasty indeed.” The Doctor replied gravely.

“Well,” Peri stammered, “How big and nasty can it be if Howard survives to write a story about it?”

“History is being made here, Peri, but it hasn’t been made yet. One wrong move and we could all die and ‘Call of Cthulhu’ could never be written at all. Which wouldn’t matter too much in the long run since if Cthulhu does rise then everyone on this planet will be in danger and there likely won’t be anyone around to lament the fact that it never got written!” the Doctor explained.

“Well then, how do we stop this Cthulhu from rising in the first place?” Peri asked.

“I don’t know.” The Doctor admitted. “Which is why it is important that we continue our investigations here!” He returned his attention to the scanner.

Just in time too as something was happening on the screen.

“There’s something coming out of the water!” Peri exclaimed.

Sure enough there was indeed a humanoid figure emerging from the calm and misty depths of the harbour. It was wearing some kind of blue-grey robes, but its face could be clearly seen on the scanner. The creature resembled some kind of turtle with bulging, fish-like eyes and frilly gills at the side of its head.

“What is that thing, Doctor?” Peri wondered; her face screwed up in revulsion.

“An aquatic branch of the species homo-reptilia.” The Doctor replied grimly. “I know them better as Sea Devils!”

The Doctor pulled the lever that activated the door control and the doors swung open with an electronic hum.

“Where are you going?” Peri stammered fearfully.

“I’m going to follow it. Find out where it’s going. You can stay here if you want to or meet me back at the hotel.” The Doctor told her.

“No, I… I’ll come with you. I’ve got the gun, remember?” Peri reminded him.

They exited the TARDIS, the Doctor pulled the door shut behind him and they took off after the Sea Devil at a discreet distance.

“I have no intention of shooting it, Peri. I just want to see where it goes.” The Doctor explained as they went.

“Well I know that, but if that Sea Devil sees us following him then he might not give us much of a choice.” Peri pointed out.

“Then we’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t see us then!” the Doctor replied with a roll of his eyes.

“Says the guy in the glow-in-the-dark jacket!” Peri chided with a smirk.

“I do not glow in the dark!” the Doctor retorted huffily.

They continued on in silence, keeping as much to the shadows as they could, following the Sea Devil through back alleys and dimly lit streets.

Before long the Sea Devil came to a house on one such street. It approached the front door without any attempts at stealth. From their vantage point hiding behind the nearby street corner, the Doctor and Peri watched on in bemusement as the Sea Devil knocked on the door and was moments later admitted by a human woman who greeted the reptilian creature with a warm smile and a hug before allowing him inside and closing the door behind them.

“Very curious indeed!” the Doctor mused.

“Well these Sea Devils can’t be bad if they’re being accepted into people’s houses with open arms.” Peri reasoned.

“Yes, so it would seem. Unless…” the Doctor began.

“Unless what?” Peri wondered.

“Unless the humans are allied with the Sea Devils in whatever nefarious conspiracy is afoot here.” The Doctor answered.

“They didn’t look very conspiratorial to me.” Peri argued.

“Why should they? They didn’t know they were being observed.” The Doctor pointed out.

“I suppose.” Peri conceded, though she still had doubts.

“Come along. Let’s get back to the hotel and get some sleep. We can tell Howard what we’ve discovered in the morning.”

 

When they got back to the hotel Victor was still at his post behind the reception desk.

The Doctor and Peri smiled politely as they walked past him to head up to their room.

“You saw it didn’t you!” Victor’s voice interrupted them as they were about to ascend.

The two time travellers turned back to face the young Bell Boy.

“Saw what?” the Doctor asked.

“The Deep One. The thing that comes out of the water. It’s been spotted a few times recently in the last eighteen months venturing back and forth to the harbour. Always at night. It’s up to something, but no one quite knows what… I warrant you that it can’t be anything good. You want to be careful when you go walking abroad at night. Strangers like yourselves have disappeared ever since the Deep One has been seen. Can’t be no coincidence now can it?” Victor told them.

“We saw something, yes, but whether it was this ‘Deep One’ that you refer to I can’t say. It was very dark. It could just have been someone taking a late night swim.” The Doctor replied dismissively. He wasn’t quite sure how much he should share with this strange young man.

“Suit yourself, sir. I’m sorry if I spoke out of turn.” Victor replied apologetically.

“Think nothing of it.” The Doctor assured him with a smile. “Good night, Victor.”

“Good night, sir! Ma’am!” and with those words he allowed the Doctor and Peri to continue on their way.

 

Once up in their room the Doctor allowed Peri to take the bed while offering to sleep in the chair by the window.

“There’s plenty of room on the bed for both of us, Doctor.” Peri pointed out as she kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the large four-poster bed.

“I know, but I’m not going to sleep straight away. I might sit up and watch the harbour out of the window for a while; see if our Sea Devil friend returns. Besides, as a Time Lord, Peri I require far less sleep than you do. Now get some rest!” the Doctor insisted as he took his position in the chair.

“If you say so, but if you get uncomfortable during the night the offer still stands.” Peri replied.

“Thank you.” The Doctor smiled.

Peri smiled back before turning over onto her side, facing away from him so that he couldn’t see her frown of disappointment. The young American was more tired than she realised and was soon fast asleep.

The Doctor heard the gentle rhythmic breathing that signalled that his friend was sleeping. He got up from his chair and took off his coat. Very quietly he crossed over to the bed and draped his coat over Peri’s slumbering form. For a moment he stood there looking down on her as she slept and a sad smile played across his face. Then he returned to his seat to commence his vigil.

He did not see the broad, happy smile that spread across Peri’s face as she slept.

 

The Doctor didn’t sleep at all that night, but just sat looking out of the window at the harbour. Occasionally Peri would stir in her sleep and he would look over at her until she settled down again and he was sure that she was at peace. Nothing happened at the harbour until the very early hours of the morning, just as the first rays of the sun were piercing the horizon.

The Doctor saw a dark shape detach itself from the shadows, approaching the harbour from the same direction in which he and Peri had pursued the Sea Devil earlier in the night. The figure made its way to the water’s edge and jumped in, disappearing below the surface.

“What are you up to?” the Doctor wondered aloud.

“Talking to yourself again?” Peri’s voice sounded sleepily from over on the bed.

The Doctor turned in his chair and smiled at her.

“Back in the land of the living, I see!” he remarked cheerfully.

Peri was sat up in the bed with the Doctor’s coat draped across her shoulders. She looked like a very colourful and cute pixie.

“See anything interesting last night?” she asked him.

“Just now actually.” The Doctor replied. “I believe I saw our Sea Devil friend returning to the sea.”

“Huh.” Peri said. “I wonder what he’s up to?”

“That, my dear, Peri, is the question.” The Doctor replied.

Peri swung herself off the bed and shrugged the Doctor’s coat from her shoulders, handing it back to him.

“So what’s the plan for today?” she wondered.

The Doctor slipped his coat back on. “I wonder if it’s too early in the day to pay our good friend Mr Lovecraft a visit?”

“Only one way to find out.” Peri replied as she slipped her shoes back on.

“That’s the spirit, Peri.” The Doctor grinned.

“Doctor, before we go…” Peri began.

“Yes?” the Doctor replied.

“About yesterday… the kiss. I didn’t mean to embarrass you like that. I’m sorry.” Peri said quietly, her eyes were looking down at the floor, unable to meet the Doctor’s.

“My dear, Peri. I wasn’t embarrassed.” The Doctor assured her. He reached out and cupped her face in his hand gently, raising it up so that she was looking at him.

“You weren’t?” Peri replied doubtfully.

“Not at all. Believe it or not, Peri, I was married once on Gallifrey before I left. I had a family… children… a grandchild, Susan. Surely you’ve heard me talk about Susan? But that was a long time ago. I left that life behind and I thought I’d forgotten what it was like to have a family. To have someone to love and who loved me. I told you yesterday that it would never have occurred to me for us to pose as a married couple and that was true. It’s been so long since I’ve loved someone that I thought that the concept had become alien to me. Ever since Susan left me all those years ago. But it hasn’t. Not really. I don’t think it ever has. I’ve just never taken the time to stop and think about it until now. Back when I first regenerated into this current body, Peri… I did some unforgivable things. I tried to kill you and that was the worst thing of all. I think that is why I’ve been so antagonistic sometimes with you, Peri. It’s as if on some level I’m trying to push you away from me because I’m afraid that I might try and hurt you again. But it hasn’t worked. Here you are… still with me, despite all I’ve done and despite all that I have put you through and I am grateful. If it wasn’t for you I don’t know how I would have gotten through my last regeneration and I doubt I’d be the man I am now without you here to constantly question me… keeping me on the right path. Thank you, Peri. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

A solitary tear tracked a course down Peri’s cheek and the Doctor brushed it away with his finger.

“Love you too, Doctor!” Peri sniffed with a smile.

The Doctor ruffled her hair affectionately.

“Come along. We’ve got a famous influential writer to wake up!” he declared.

He set off out the door and Peri, still smiling broadly, followed.

 

Howard was up and dressed when the Doctor and Peri turned up at his door and he let them into his room.

“Did you see it, Doctor? The figure that went into the harbour this morning.” Howard asked as soon as they were in.

“Yes.” The Doctor replied. “We also saw it when it came out last night. Peri and I followed him to a house where he was greeted like an old friend.”

“’Him’? So it was a man?” Howard remarked in amazement.

“Not quite. What we saw was a member of an ancient race of reptiles who used to rule the Earth millions of years before humans had even evolved.” The Doctor explained.

Howard seemed to take this piece of information in his stride.

“I see.” He said simply. “What would such a creature be doing in Innsmouth and why would the people here be freely associating themselves with such a beast?”

“That’s what I mean to find out.” The Doctor told him. “It’s possible that Innsmouth is situated near a Sea Devil colony that was somehow awakened from hibernation, though how they’re connected to Cthulhu or the disappearances I don’t know… yet.”

“Sea Devils? Cthulhu? It seems you have learned a lot more than I, Doctor.” Howard replied.

“Trust me, Howard. Cthulhu is a name that you’re gonna want to remember.” Peri assured him.

“I’ll bear that in mind.” Howard answered. “And what about the Sea Devils should I remember them too?”

“Yes, probably.” The Doctor said with a knowing smile. “But you might want to call them Deep Ones instead.”

“Deep Ones?” Howard repeated with a look of puzzlement.

“Hey, isn’t that what Victor called them last night?” Peri reminded the Doctor.

“Who is Victor?” Howard wondered.

“The Bell Boy who works here.” The Doctor told him. “We had a rather interesting encounter with him when we returned to the hotel last night.” He recounted everything that Victor had said to them regarding the ‘Deep One’.

“So this Sea Devil is responsible for the disappearances?” Howard remarked when the Doctor had finished.

“Possibly. We don’t know that for sure. All we have is wild speculation from a superstitious local. Though I did get the feeling that young Victor knew rather more than what he was telling us.” The Doctor mused.

“He gives me the creeps. Him and that manager, Obadiah.” Peri shuddered involuntarily.

“So what is our plan of action for today?” Howard asked.

“I think we need to have a talk with our Sea Devil friend, but since he won’t be making another appearance until tonight that leaves us with an entire day free ahead of us. Perhaps we can go out and try talking to some of the locals?” the Doctor suggested.

“I can go and talk to Victor if you like. See if I can find out what he knows?” Peri added.

“I’m not sure I want to risk you talking to that young man on your own, Peri. He might turn out to be dangerous.” The Doctor replied.

“Don’t worry about me, Doctor. I’ve still got Howard’s gun, remember.” She turned to Howard. “You don’t mind if I keep hold of it for a while longer, do you, Howard?”

“Not at all. The people of Innsmouth are strange, but they don’t appear to be dangerous.” Howard replied.

“Yes, well… appearances can be deceiving.” The Doctor mused grimly. He took Peri’s hand in his and squeezed it gently. “Be careful.”

Peri looked up into his eyes and smiled. “I will, I promise.”

And with that they set off and went their separate ways.

 

The three of them were careful to time their departures so as not to arouse suspicion. Howard left first and headed east into Innsmouth. The Doctor came down five minutes later and left the hotel heading west. Around six or seven minutes passed before Peri came down into the lobby.

Obadiah Crane was behind the desk this morning and he greeted Peri with a smile that gave his eyes the eerie impression that they were glowing.

“Good morning, Mrs Smith. Your husband left not just a few moments ago. He was headed west if you wish to try and catch up with him.” Obadiah told her helpfully.

“It’s okay. We’ve agreed to meet back here later at lunch time.” Peri told him. “I suppose I’m probably up way too early for breakfast. That’s not until 8.30, right?”

“That’s right. It’s 7.45 now so you haven’t long to wait. Is there anything I can do for you until then?” Obadiah wondered.

“No it’s okay. I’ll just have a little wander around the hotel until then, if you don’t mind?” Peri replied.

“Not at all. Be my guest.” Obadiah bowed and allowed Peri to continue on her way.

Peri headed towards the dining area where she’d seen Victor emerge from yesterday. Perhaps she would find him there.

The dining area was a large rectangular room which had around thirty or forty round tables dotted about. Each table was seated with four chairs and was covered by a burgundy table cloth. A pretty young fair haired maid was busy setting the tables with cutlery and coffee cups ready for breakfast.

“Hi! I haven’t seen you round here yet. You just work mornings?” Peri asked cheerfully.

The maid paused in her work and looked up and Peri was immediately struck by her piercing blue eyes, just like those of Obadiah and Victor. Was this a family run hotel?

“I am here all the time, Miss.” The maid replied simply and without smiling before returning to her work.

Peri knew when she was being dismissed. There was a door leading out of the dining room, probably into the kitchens. If she went through there would she find a blue-eyed chef busily preparing breakfast? Peri decided that she didn’t need to see that.

She went back out the way she had come in and crossed the lobby, passed an eerily smiling Obadiah and into a corridor that led to the hotel’s ground floor bedrooms. As far as Peri knew, she, the Doctor and Howard were the only guests at the hotel so these rooms were probably all empty. Could Victor be taking a nap in one of them?

Peri paused and listened at each door she passed. Silence was all that greeted her. Until she reached door number six.

Behind that door Peri heard a strange bubbling and gurgling sound, as if someone were letting water out of a bath. She decided to knock on the door, just in case it was Victor.

“Hello! Is anyone in there?” she asked tentatively.

Peri tried the handle of the door and found it to be unlocked. On the spur of the moment she decided to go in and hoped that she wouldn’t walk in on the young man naked and getting out of the bath.

When she saw what was in there, she found herself wishing that it had been a naked man.

Standing in the centre of the room was a large amorphous green blob with eyes and mouths popping up and vanishing again all over its gelatinous body. It seemed to be able to sprout limbs at will and as it spied Peri with one of its many eyes it extended a tentacle from the centre of its torso and reached out for her.

Peri just barely was able to stifle a scream.

“Sorry, wrong room!” she stammered fearfully, slamming the door before the tentacle could reach her.

Peri ran off down the corridor and realised too late she was running the wrong way. The creature would be through that door and pursuing her soon enough, of that she had no doubt so there was no way she could double back now. She continued down the corridor until she came to a door marked ‘Broom Closet’. Quickly she pulled the door open; thanking her lucky stars that it was unlocked, and dived in there to hide, pulling the door shut behind her.

For what seemed like an eternity Peri stood shivering with sheer terror in the pitch blackness of the broom closet, hoping beyond hope that that thing, whatever it was would not think to look for her in here. She tried to calm her breathing down as best as she could, fearful that the thing would hear her, but also wanting to listen out for the creature should it be coming her way. Her heart beat sounded so loud in her head that she even feared that the monster might hear that too.

Then she heard something else over the pounding of her heart. Footsteps approaching.

That didn’t seem right, Peri thought to herself. From what she had seen that creature didn’t have any feet. Unless it could sprout them from its body like it did with the tentacles and the eyes and the mouths. Peri shuddered. What the Hell was that thing?

The footsteps drew closer and closer.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” Peri whispered frantically.

The door opened.

“Well, hello, Mrs Smith. What are you doing in here?” It was only Victor.

Peri could hardly contain her relief at seeing the young Bell Boy. He may be creepy, but at least he wasn’t a big alien blob monster. For a moment she faltered, at a loss for what to say.

“Oh thank goodness! I got a bit lost and came in here by accident. The door got stuck and I couldn’t get out again. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come along when you did.” She lied. Peri had decided the truth would probably be a bit too hard for the young man to swallow. One question did nag her at the back of her mind though. What had happened to the creature?

In that instant Peri forgot all about her desire to speak with Victor. All she wanted to do now was get out of the hotel, find the Doctor and tell him about what she had seen.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright now, Ma’am? I know how easy it is to get turned around in an unfamiliar place.” Victor was saying sympathetically.

“I’ll be fine, Victor, thanks.” She replied, smiling at him sweetly. “I think I might just go outside and get some fresh air.”

With those words Peri took her leave of the young Bell Boy and left the Arkham Hotel as quickly as she could.

 

Once outside Peri realised that trying to find the Doctor in a town the size of Innsmouth would be no easy task. Luckily there was a quaint little café across the road from the hotel. Peri decided to sit there and have a coffee or two using some of the local money the Doctor had given her, and wait for her friend to return.

 

Almost three hours and six cups of coffee later she saw the Doctor approaching the hotel from the direction in which he’d left that morning. She smiled when she saw him and resisted the urge to get up and run to him like one of those cheesy scenes from a romantic movie.

“Doctor, over here!” she called out instead when he drew closer.

The Doctor looked up and smiled, walking over to her and joining her at her table.

“Hello, Peri. What brings you out here?” he asked amiably.

Without any preamble Peri launched straight into her account of everything that had happened to her since the Doctor had left her that morning.

“After all that, speaking to Victor just didn’t seem that important anymore.” She finished.

“Fascinating!” the Doctor said. “What you described sounds very much like a Shoggoth, another of the monsters that features in Howard’s stories.”

“Well I think the word I’d use is terrifying… not fascinating!” Peri drawled, a shiver trembling up and down her spine.

The Doctor looked at her and caressed her face gently with one hand.

“Well I’m very glad that you were able to get away from it.” He remarked softly.

Peri smiled and leaned her face into the palm of his hand.

“How did you get on with the locals? Did you find out anything new?” she asked.

The Doctor lowered his hand and shook his head.

“Not a thing. Even when I mentioned Cthulhu by name they refused to say anything to me at all!” he replied with evident frustration. “All they would say is that I was delving into things that were best left alone and I had a lot of people advising me to leave Innsmouth before it was too late.”

“So what do we do now?” Peri wondered.

“The only thing we can do now is speak to our Sea Devil friend when he puts in an appearance tonight.” The Doctor replied. “Right now, I think I would like some tea!”

The Doctor raised a hand to summon the waiter.

 

A short while later they were joined by Howard who had had as much luck with the locals as the Doctor. He joined them for a late lunch in the café after which they returned to their hotel rooms with an agreement to meet outside after sunset. Peri took the opportunity for a nap while the Doctor joined Howard in his room to have a bit of a fan-boy chat with the writer about some of his earlier works. As soon as the sun had set the Doctor went to the room to awaken Peri and then they went down to keep their rendezvous with Howard.

Once outside they made their way together towards the mist shrouded harbour.

“Right, you both know what to do when our Sea Devil friend puts in an appearance?” the Doctor checked as they neared the pier.

“Yes we know!” Peri assured him with a smile.

Howard was looking down the pier at the square blue shape of the TARDIS.

“I have kept my silence until now, but I must ask you, Doctor, what is that thing? It was not there before and yet now it is and last night from my window I saw you and Peri go into it and stay in there for a good many hours until the Sea Devil came out of the water.” He asked curiously.

The Doctor looked at Peri. “We have a few hours yet before the Sea Devil comes out. Do you think we should show him, Peri?”

“Why not?” Peri shrugged.

They led Howard down the pier. The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door and ushered Howard inside.

Howard’s jaw dropped in astonishment as he looked upon the vast interior of the TARDIS control room. He walked around as if in a daze, marvelling at the console with its time-rotor and many, many switches and levers.

“It is as if the doorway into your box is a portal into an entirely different dimension!” Howard remarked in amazement.

It was the Doctor’s turn to look surprised.

“You know that is a surprisingly accurate description of exactly how Gallifreyan dimension transcendental technology works!” he exclaimed.

“So you and Peri are not of this world, Doctor?” Howard asked.

“I am.” Peri replied, “The Doctor, not so much!”

“I am a Time Lord.” The Doctor explained. “With the TARDIS I have the ability to travel through all the universe of time and space.”

“Then you have seen the future, Doctor?” Howard replied in awe.

“I have seen many futures, Howard. Even yours.” The Doctor told him.

“Will I become successful in my writing, Doctor?” Howard could not resist asking.

The Time Lord smiled sadly. “Your work will be well remembered and go on to influence many.”

“A fine legacy indeed.” Howard remarked with a smile.

“You know, rather than waiting hours for this Sea Devil to arrive, couldn’t we just shift the TARDIS forward in time a little and skip out the boring part?” Peri asked.

“Not a bad idea, Peri.” The Doctor rewarded her with a smile. “But you know how unreliable the old girl can be sometimes.” He petted the console affectionately as he spoke as if conscious of hurting the TARDIS’s feelings.

“We might end up shifting too far forward or even accidentally jump to another space and time entirely!” he admitted though it pained him to do so.

“Boring waiting it is then!” Peri sighed, but she caressed the Doctor’s hand tenderly to show that she wasn’t mad at him.

“Why don’t you go and show Howard the TARDIS library and I’ll watch out for the Sea Devil?” the Doctor suggested.

“Okay.” Peri agreed and she started to lead the writer out of the control room. Howard left the room ahead of her.

“Oh and Peri!” the Doctor called to her before she departed.

Peri turned to him with a smile. “Yes, Doctor?”

“Keep him away from the ‘L’ section would you, please? We don’t want him glimpsing too much of his future now, do we?” he told her with a wink.

“Don’t worry. The TARDIS library is so big I doubt we’ll even get that far before the Sea Devil gets here.” She grinned. With those words she blew the Doctor a little kiss and left.

The Doctor smiled and turned on the scanner to begin his long, boring wait.

 

Peri and Howard were only a third of the way through the library’s ‘A’ section when the Doctor’s voice came over the communication system and summoned them back to the control room.

“Get back here quickly!” his voice had urged. “The Sea Devil is coming up out of the water now!”

Five minutes later they had re-joined the Doctor and were heading out of the TARDIS.

Howard and the Doctor set off in pursuit of the Sea Devil, though this time discretion was not so important. They wanted the creature to know he was being followed.

Peri waited a few moments after they’d gone before she went off to carry out her part of the plan.

 

Stegorax noticed the two strange humans following him almost immediately. He chanced a glance over his shoulder. He didn’t recognise either of them as citizens of Innsmouth. They must be two of the strangers that Marla had told him about last night over dinner. He knew they were staying at the Arkham hotel. Could they be connected in some way to the evil that resided there?

He could not allow them to follow him back to his home and place his family in danger.

Stegorax ducked down an alley way and broke into a run. He must try and lead them away and give them the slip somehow.

He reached the bottom of the alley way only to find a young human female standing before him, pointing one of the human’s crude projectile weapons at him. Crude though it was, it still possessed the capability to harm or even kill him. Stegorax turned desperately. The other two humans were coming down the alley behind him.

“You can’t get away and I do not want to shoot you!” the female said.

Stegorax faced her once more and hissed threateningly.

Peri aimed the gun over the Sea Devil’s right shoulder and fired a shot into the wall behind him.

“Doesn’t mean that I won’t if I have to!” she assured him with a grim smile.

Stegorax frowned and raised his arms in surrender.

“It’s alright, Peri, you can put the gun away now. I don’t think our friend here is going to give any more trouble.” The Doctor said as he and Howard closed in from behind.

Peri did as she was instructed. Stegorax lowered his hands and turned to face the male humans.

“What do you want with me?” he hissed in his harsh, sibilant reptile’s voice.

“Don’t worry. We’re not going to hurt you. We just want to talk, that’s all.” The Doctor explained with a reassuring smile.

Without warning a glistening, green barbed tendril lanced down from the rooftops above and impaled Stegorax through the back, erupting out of his chest in a shower of green gore.

For a long moment the Sea Devil stood there gasping, blood frothing from his reptilian lips, the tentacle writhing within his chest like an extra appendage. The Doctor and his friends could only look on in helpless horror.

Then the tentacle withdrew and retreated back to where it had come from. The Doctor and the others looked up in time to see the amorphous shape of a Shoggoth slither away across the rooftops.

Stegorax fell into the Doctor’s arms twitching uncontrollably.

“Take… me… to my… home.” He rasped feebly through ragged breaths.

The Doctor nodded and carefully slung the stricken Sea Devil across his shoulder.

“What was that hideous creature?” Howard asked with a shudder of revulsion.

“No time for that now, Howard!” the Doctor snapped. “We must hurry!”

They left the alley and headed for Stegorax’s home as quickly as they could with their mortally wounded cargo.

It didn’t take too long for the Doctor and Peri to find the house that they had tracked Stegorax to the previous evening. Once they arrived Peri knocked on the front door loudly and urgently.

“Help! You’ve gotta let us in! We’ve got someone badly hurt here!” she shouted.

After a moment the door opened and the same woman that they had seen the previous night stood before them. She appeared to be in her mid to late fifties, but her long, dark hair still carried the shine of youth with only the barest hint of grey.

“Who are you people?” she began sternly, but then she saw the ravaged body of the Sea Devil thrown over the Doctor’s shoulder and the look on her face fell into one of despair and anguish.

“Stegorax! What have they done to you??!!” she cried, salty tears welling in her bright hazel eyes.

The Doctor ignored the implied accusation. “He’s been very badly injured we must get him inside quickly!” he urged.

The woman hesitated for only a moment of uncertainty, tears coursing freely down her cheeks, before she stood aside and allowed the Doctor to carry Stegorax inside, closely followed by Howard and Peri.

“Take him through to the living room on the right!” the woman instructed.

The Doctor did as he was told and gently lowered Stegorax onto the sofa inside.

“Have you got something that I can bind his chest with? He’s lost a lot of blood!” the Doctor said urgently.

“I have some clean blankets in the linen closet that might serve.” The woman replied.

She was about to leave, but a movement from Stegorax stayed her.

“No, no!” the Sea Devil rasped weakly. “It is far too late… to save me now…”

The woman knelt beside Stegorax and took one of his hands into hers. With the other hand she caressed his leathery reptilian face tenderly, ignoring the blood that stained it.

“You must let them try, my love.” She sobbed softly.

“The attempt… would be… futile.” Stegorax gasped. “Let me look upon you one last time… before I die.”

The woman smiled, even through her tears.

“You were supposed to outlive me remember!” she sniffed.

“I am sorry.” Stegorax whispered in reply. “In a way… I am happy that I will not… watch you …die. Is that selfish of me?”

The woman could only shake her head and she squeezed the Sea Devil’s hand tighter.

“Do not blame… these people.” He continued. “They are not the ones that have killed me. I believe you can trust them. Tell them about… my work… promise me!”

“I promise.” She cried.

Stegorax’s turtle-like lips twisted into a smile and then his head fell back as he breathed his last breath.

The woman buried her face against his and sobbed uncontrollably. She caressed his face and kissed his blood flecked lips.

The Doctor and Peri could only look on sadly. Tears were also running down Peri’s face.

Only Howard seemed unaffected by the sense of loss and grief that pervaded the atmosphere within the room.

“What was that thing to you?” he asked with undisguised disgust.

The woman was quickly on her feet and turned her full, furious attention upon the writer.

“That ‘thing’ was my husband and I would ask you to show a little more respect, sir!” she riled angrily. “There was more humanity in his heart than I have seen in many so called ‘men’!”

The Doctor stepped forward to interject.

“I’m very sorry for your loss, Mrs…?” he began.

The woman turned her tear stained face to him, anger still burning in her eyes, but her countenance softened a little at the Doctor’s tone. She could see that this other stranger did not share the other man’s revulsion.

“My name is Marla. Stegorax and I had been married for nearly thirty-two years. He gave me the best years of my life and now he’s gone.” She smiled sadly. “Please. Tell me what happened to him?”

“I think first, out of respect for your husband, we should move him somewhere that he can rest a little more comfortably until such time you can arrange a funeral for him?” the Doctor suggested.

Marla smiled. “Yes of course.” She agreed. “You can take him upstairs to the spare bedroom at the top of the hall. He will be peaceful enough there.”

The Doctor glared angrily at Howard. “Perhaps you’d like to give me a hand, Howard.” He said.

Howard avoided the Doctor’s gaze, but nodded his agreement.

After they had taken Stegorax up to the spare room and laid him out on the bed there, the Doctor and Howard returned downstairs to the living room.

Peri was sat in an armchair by the fireplace and Marla was just returning from the kitchen with a tray of tea.

The Doctor and Howard seated themselves and their host poured tea for them all before she too sat in the sofa where her husband had breathed his last breaths. She seemed unconcerned by the green blood that had soaked into the material of the cushion she sat upon.

Once they were all seated the Doctor told Marla about the events that had led to the mortal wounding of her husband.

“So this Shoggoth creature is what killed him?” Marla confirmed once the Doctor had finished.

“That’s right.” The Doctor replied.

“They must know that Stegorax has been working on something that will prevent the awakening of Cthulhu.” She mused thoughtfully.

“What can you tell us about that? Perhaps I’ll be able to help.” The Doctor said.

“In 1725, exactly two hundred years ago, there was a mysterious fireball that fell out of the sky over Innsmouth and landed in the sea nearby. This fireball heralded the arrival of Cthulhu on Earth. It also served to awaken a colony of my husband’s people that had been hibernating in their underwater city for millions of years. At first the aquae reptilia were furious to find that their planet had been usurped by little more than apes while they had slept.” Marla chuckled lightly at this.

The Doctor too smiled at his own recollections. “Yes… they do get like that sometimes.” He agreed.

“A war might have broken out between the people of Innsmouth and the sea reptiles had it not been for the arrival of an even greater threat. A common enemy that united our two species in a common cause. Cthulhu!”

“What happened?” Peri wondered.

“Our two peoples were gathered in the harbour, poised for battle when Cthulhu rose out of the water like the Leviathan of legend and attacked; snatching men from both sides in his tentacles and rending bodies with his mighty claws. Both sides broke in that initial onslaught, but they rallied together soon after and counter-attacked the formidable force of Cthulhu before he could attain a foothold on our land. The sea reptiles’ weapons were far greater than our own. They possessed a great cannon which they were able to turn upon Cthulhu. This cannon wrought great and terrible injuries upon Cthulhu’s colossal frame. It did not kill him, but weakened him severely enough that he had to return to the sea. There he has been since, sleeping for the last two hundred years. Our people knew that someday he would return. Stegorax and others of his people before him have been striving to create a weapon that will rid us of his menace once and for all whenever that time should come. In a way we are grateful to Cthulhu for bringing our two species together, at least in Innsmouth. Humans and sea reptiles have lived side by side in harmony in Innsmouth for the last two hundred years. Stegorax and I were not the first interspecies marriage to be born out of that harmony. We live like normal people much of the time, but the aquae reptilia and the mixed-race children that our intermarrying has produced are unfortunately obliged to lay low whenever strangers come to our town, though thankfully that does not happen too regularly. For the last five years Stegorax has been working on the underwater weapon that we hope will finally rid us of Cthulhu. He was close to completing it. Since the disappearances started eighteen months ago he had been spending more and more of his time working on the weapon. Somehow he knew that those disappearances heralded the impending return of our enemy. Then there were the nightmares that many people in Innsmouth have been experiencing too. All these signs pointed to Cthulhu’s return. I do not know if Stegorax was able to complete his weapon, Doctor. Do you think that you can help us?” Marla finished her story.

“I’ll certainly do what I can.” The Doctor promised. “I’d like to take a look at what Stegorax was working on. Perhaps I’ll be able to get it to work.”

“But what have the Shoggoths and the disappearances got to do with all of this?” Peri wondered.

“I don’t know yet.” The Doctor admitted. “Why has it taken two hundred years for Cthulhu to effect a return? I believe there are some cosmic rituals being performed here by our Shoggoth friends. I’m going to check the star charts in the TARDIS to see if there are any important cosmic events that might serve to strengthen Cthulhu enough to enable his awakening.”

“What do you want us to do?” Peri asked.

“Howard can come with me to the TARDIS. Peri, I’d like you to stay here with Marla. After what you told me about the Shoggoth earlier I don’t think it’s safe at the hotel anymore.”

“You think the Shoggoth are using the hotel as a base? Shouldn’t we warn the manager and his staff to get out of there?” Peri reasoned.

“I think you’ll find that Mr Obadiah Crane and his staff are the Shoggoths, Peri.” The Doctor remarked grimly.

Peri’s face grimaced with horror as the implications of the Doctor’s statement sunk in.

“Remember, all those who disappeared had stayed at the Arkham Hotel. That’s why we were investigating it if you recall.” The Doctor reminded her.

“Of course, it all makes sense now.” Peri murmured. “Do you think the disappearances might have something to do with this cosmic ritual you were talking about? Perhaps the ritual requires a certain amount of blood sacrifices.”

“It’s possible.” The Doctor agreed. “Just as the Logopolitans are able to work wonders with numbers and Carrionites with words, perhaps the Shoggoths’ science works with blood. I hope that they don’t have all the blood they need.” He seemed genuinely terrified at the thought of what he had just said.

“It’s late now. Would you mind if we rested here tonight, Marla? Howard and I will set out to the TARDIS first thing tomorrow morning.” The Doctor said.

“Yes of course, though you’ll have to make yourselves comfortable down here.” Marla replied.

“Thank you, Marla.” The Doctor smiled.

Marla bid them goodnight, leaving her guests to sort out their own sleeping arrangements.

 

True to his word the Doctor set out with Howard in the early hours of the morning to the TARDIS.

Once inside the time machine the Doctor busied himself looking through the TARDIS star charts concentrating on planetary alignments and cosmic events of 1925.

While he did this he had put Howard to work searching through his chest in order to find a diving suit that he knew was in there somewhere that he intended to use to swim down to whatever weapon Stegorax had been working on.

“I think I’ve found it, Doctor!” Howard’s voice called from the TARDIS interior.

The Doctor looked up in time to see the writer walk in carrying one of those old fashioned diving suits complete with a heavy looking goldfish bowl helmet. This was a little more advanced, however, in that it possessed its own self-contained oxygen supply.

“Splendid!” the Doctor beamed. “That’s exactly it! Well done, Howard!”

“Have you been able to find anything?” Howard wondered as he set the suit and helmet on a chair.

“Yes, I rather believe I have!” the Doctor replied with an air of self-congratulation.

“Well, do you care to share with me what it is you have found?” Howard pressed patiently.

“On January 24th this year there is to be an eclipse which may well be just the cosmic event that we are looking for!” the Doctor proclaimed.

Howard looked thoughtful and then shocked. “January 24th? But that’s today!” he declared in alarm.

“Yes it is, isn’t it?” The Doctor agreed. “That means we’d better get cracking. Come along, Howard. You can help me get this suit on.”

 

A short while later the Doctor was decked out in his suit and diving down into the murky depths of the harbour. He found himself having flashbacks to his vision as he dived deeper and deeper. The suit that he wore was of Gallifreyan design, made from a flexible one-size-fits-all alloy. He remembered the days when he and the Master used to go diving for veshzel spider-clams back when they were teenagers. Back when they were still good friends and not mortal enemies.

He smiled sadly at the recollection.

Howard was back in the TARDIS with instructions on how to communicate with the Doctor using the communication system in the console.

“Can you see anything yet, Doctor?” his voice came over now through the intercom in the Doctor’s helmet.

“Not yet!” the Doctor replied. “It’s so murky down here; it’s a bit like swimming through a jug of gravy.”

“You’re making me hungry, Doctor.” Howard’s voice reproached. “You forget that we left without breakfast this morning.”

The Doctor chose to ignore him. It was then that he spied what it was he was looking for and his face lit up like that of a child on Christmas morning.

“Oh Stegorax!” he proclaimed out loud. “If that’s what I think it is then I think it will serve very nicely indeed!”

 

Peri and Marla were sat in the dining room of Marla’s house. Peri was eating some toast and scrambled eggs that her host had prepared for her. Marla, however, sat despondently opposite her, not eating at all.

“You’ll have to eat something eventually, Marla.” Peri said sympathetically.

“I know, but right now I just don’t feel like it. I’ll have to get in touch with High Priest Tyrallos later today to arrange Stegorax’s burial ceremony. After that, then maybe I’ll eat.” Marla replied.

“Did you and Stegorax have any children from your marriage?” Peri wondered.

“Just one son; Sevrig-Thomas. We thought it was fitting to give him one aquae reptilia name and one human one. He’s all grown up now and working as a baker in the town. Oh my God, he’ll break his heart when I tell him about his father. They were so close! Stegorax used to boast that whatever machines he might invent, Sevrig-Thomas would always the best thing he ever made.” Marla had started off smiling sadly at the recollection of her son, but she was reduced to tears by the end of it.

Peri got up from her chair and put her arms around the grief stricken woman in an effort to console her as best as she could.

There came a knocking at the front door.

“I’ll get it.” Peri insisted. “It’s probably the Doctor and Howard anyway.”

She left Marla alone in the kitchen with her grief.

Peri went to the front door and opened it.

It wasn’t the Doctor or Howard.

“Do not try to run, Mrs Smith. If that is truly your name.” Obadiah Crane was standing on the doorstep along with Victor and the maid. “You cannot escape the Shoggoth!”

Peri was about to give it a good darn try when she heard a scream from the kitchen and breaking glass. Moments later Marla was dragged through to the hallway by a man Peri hadn’t seen before. He was dressed as a chef and had the same blue eyes as the other hotel staff.

“What do you want with us?” Peri stammered fearfully.

“Cthulhu is a biological weapon engineered by the Shoggoth for use in planetary colonisation. It requires blood as part of its rejuvenation process which is also invigorated by today’s eclipse, which should be occurring within the hour. Thirteen transfusions of blood are required to complete the ritual. Ten have been made. We need only three more. You two and the Doctor or that insipid writer, Lovecraft, will serve that purpose admirably. Where are they?” Obadiah explained.

Peri raised her chin with false bravado and stepped out of the door.

“If you follow me I’ll be happy to take you to him.” She replied.

Peri began to lead them off towards the harbour. Somehow in her mind she just knew that this was the right thing to do. If Cthulhu was going to rise within the hour then she needed to be where the Doctor was and the Shoggoth needed to be there too.

The four Shoggoths followed, maintaining their humanoid forms for the time being. The chef kept a hold of Marla as a hostage and brought her along. If Peri tried anything then it was prepared to act accordingly.  

 

By the time that the strange procession reached the harbour the sky was already beginning to darken. The moon was creeping ever closer to the sun. There was no sign of the Doctor or Howard, but the TARDIS still stood at the end of the pier where it had materialised at the start of this little adventure.

“Where is the Doctor?” Obadiah demanded of Peri.

“I don’t know. He should be around here somewhere.” She admitted.

“I hope that he will arrive in time for Cthulhu’s grand entrance.” Obadiah smirked.

“I don’t understand.” Peri frowned. “I didn’t think Cthulhu could awaken without the final three blood sacrifices?”

“You misunderstand, Mrs Smith. For Cthulhu to acquire the blood he needs requires no action from myself or my brethren. Cthulhu will take you for himself.” Obadiah raised his hands to the heavens.

“Behold! The time has come!”

That was when the moon swallowed the sun and darkness fell.

The darkness seemed to Peri to last an agonising eternity, but in truth it was only a matter of seven minutes. During that time she could see nothing but the black haloed disc of the moon as it inexorably crawled across the sun. It was what she could hear that was far more disturbing. All around her the air was filled by moist slapping and slithering sounds as if something viscous and disgusting were oozing beside her.

Then the moon spat out the sun and light returned and Peri longed for the darkness again.

The four Shoggoths had now shed their human disguises and were writhing in anticipation of the awakening of their powerful bio-weapon. Marla had the worst of the deal as the Shoggoth that had once been a chef still had a hold of her within one long slime encrusted tentacle.

“Look as he rises!” Obadiah/Shoggoth declared exultantly. He (if indeed it could still be referred to as such) still sounded like Obadiah, but now the voice was multiplied as it spoke from every single mouth that manifested upon the bloated amoeba-like form that stood before Peri.

Peri looked out into the water where Obadiah’s tentacles were gesticulating and saw to her horror that the once calm harbour waters were now broiling fiercely like the inside of a kettle reaching boiling point.

Then something huge and monstrous breached the surface. The creature was crudely humanoid with long muscular arms and legs, its large hands ended in black vicious claws that looked as if they could hook whales out of the water. Its head writhed with a mass of octopus-like tendrils and beyond those there glared the malevolent yellow eyes as big as elephants that both the Doctor and Howard had spoken of in their visions. The repulsive colossus was completed by a pair of huge, leathery bat-like wings that enfolded from its broad muscular shoulders. Cthulhu towered hundreds of meters above the harbour and the people (or monsters) below him.

Obadiah/Shoggoth lurched forward and addressed Cthulhu.

“See, Cthulhu, we have brought the final sacrifices to help your strength return!”

Cthulhu’s voice thundered in reply, but he did not speak. Instead his unearthly vocals resounded in the minds of all present.

“I see only two of the three that I need. As I have lain here dormant for two centuries I have come to realise my power is greater than those who created me. I need no masters now. I will claim this world as my own and all who live here will fear and worship me as their god!”

“No!” Obadiah/Shoggoth cried. “We created you. You will claim this world in our name!”

Peri detected a hint of fear in the Shoggoth’s voices.

Cthulhu’s reply came in the form of action rather than further words.

Several of his tentacles descended from above. Cthulhu did not even need to stoop as the tendrils stretched to the length required as though made of elastic. They snatched up the four Shoggoths, including the one that still head Marla!

“Marla!” Peri cried out and she ran to help the imperilled woman.

She leapt forward and was able to grab Marla around her legs. Fortunately the Shoggoth that held her was too preoccupied with its own impending fate to be too concerned about holding onto Marla. With a wet schlurping sound her arm came free of the tentacle’s grasp and she tumbled upon the ground on top of Peri.

The two women untangled themselves from the undignified heap that they found themselves in.

“Thank you! You saved my life!” Marla said breathlessly.

They looked up in time to see the four Shoggoths being drawn into the mass of writhing tentacles to disappear into them and be devoured by whatever fearsome jaws lay hidden within.

“Well that takes care of them.” Peri remarked wryly. “Now what the Hell are we gonna do about that thing?”

“There is nothing that you can do!” Cthulhu’s voice assured her as it reverberated within her skull.

“Can you stop that? You’re giving me a headache!” Peri shot back at it defiantly.

“Bow before your new god!” Cthulhu thundered.

Then the waters below Cthulhu began to churn once more as something else began to rise out of them.

“What is this?” Cthulhu demanded.

A large shining silver metallic platform rose out of the sea. Upon it there stood a dais of complex looking machinery that in turn was attached to a rather formidable looking cannon with a barrel as big as one of Cthulhu’s eyes. Standing before the dais that operated this cannon was a tall figure in a bright orange diving suit and helmet.

“Doctor?” Peri said hopefully.

“I think it is you who should bow before me, Cthulhu!” the figure on the platform declared in a familiar arrogant voice that confirmed Peri’s hopes.

A hideous alien sound echoed through Peri’s mind that made her feel faint and nauseated. It sounded like a retching cat attempting to hawk up a fur-ball. Peri realised that it was Cthulhu laughing.

“Do your worst. Once you have failed I promise to end your life quickly for amusing me so.” Cthulhu replied.

The Doctor didn’t need telling twice. He danced around the control dais, turning dials and pulling levers and the huge cannon began to glow with an ethereal lilac luminescence, emitting a low hum as it powered up.

The hum reached a crescendo and the lilac glow coalesced into a crackling sphere that undulated ominously upon the tip of the cannon’s gargantuan barrel.

For a moment Peri though that she glimpsed a look of fear in Cthulhu’s baleful eyes.

Then the sphere lanced out of the cannon and struck Cthulhu square in the chest. The lilac sphere enveloped the mighty form of Cthulhu like a net of pure energy.

“What is happening?” the great behemoth thundered.

Where the sphere had struck there appeared a swirling vortex like a whirlpool that began to pull Cthulhu into it.

The great form of Cthulhu seemed to fold in upon itself like some grotesque parody of an origami gone wrong. Then every last inch of the creature was drawn into the vortex. The swirling eddy remained open for a few more seconds before it dissipated and vanished into the ether.

Of Cthulhu there was no trace that he had ever existed at all.

“Yay! Way to go, Doctor!” Peri whooped enthusiastically.

The Doctor operated a few more switches on the dais. The cannon powered down and the platform seemed to glide across the water until it deposited the Doctor upon dry land.

Once he was off it the platform slowly submerged itself back under the harbour waters, following the pre-programmed commands that the Doctor had punched into it.

The Doctor took off his helmet and beamed at Peri.

Peri couldn’t resist smiling back at him and this time had no qualms about launching herself at him and wrapping her arms around him in a bear hug.

“I knew you could do it, Doctor!” she laughed and she gave the Doctor a congratulatory peck on the cheek.

The Doctor was forced to return the embrace one handed as he held his helmet under one arm.

He was blushing profusely.

“I did nothing, but use the magnificent weapon that was made by the hands of our late friend, Stegorax.” He said with uncharacteristic modesty.

“I only wish he had been able to see it in action.” Marla smiled sadly. “He would have been so proud to see that his life’s work was not in vain.”

“What was that thing you used, Doctor?” Peri wondered.

“Stegorax was a very brilliant man indeed. He knew that Cthulhu was indestructible and anything that they could make to destroy him would only serve as a temporary solution. No matter how many times you destroyed him he would keep rejuvenating and coming back. Therefore, Stegorax concentrated his efforts in devising a weapon that would serve to remove Cthulhu as a threat once and for all. He created a void cannon. The Void is a nowhere place that exists outside of time and space. All Stegorax did was create a weapon that would send Cthulhu into the Void where he would be imprisoned for all eternity and never be able to harm the world again.” The Doctor explained.

“And there won’t be any more Shoggoths popping up to try and take over the world?” Peri asked.

“They may well try again in the future, but the Earth is safe for now.” The Doctor assured her. “Or at least as safe as it ever is!”

“Gee, thanks for making me feel better, Doctor!” Peri drawled, but she hugged the Doctor tighter nonetheless.

 

A short while later the Doctor, Peri, Marla and Howard were all stood on the pier outside the TARDIS. The Doctor had changed out of his diving suit and was once more clad in his familiar colourful coat and yellow striped trousers. Peri had shed her 1920s clothes which she’d worn for the last few days and changed into a red and black tartan mini-skirt and a rather fetching blue off-the-shoulder blouse. She had curled herself around the Doctor’s arm and leaned her head against his shoulder as they bid farewell to Howard and Marla.

“You have given me much to think about, Doctor.” Howard was saying. “And much to write about. I am privileged, I feel, to have met you.”

“I envy you. I have already read the stories that you’re about to write. You’re going to be experiencing them for the first time. I’m the one who should feel privileged for knowing where those stories came from. Just remember to call them Deep Ones and not Sea Devils and don’t be too unkind to the peoples of Innsmouth, please.” The Doctor replied.

“I’ll try.” Howard promised and he shook the Doctor’s hand warmly.

“I have mixed feelings about having met you, Doctor. Perhaps, if not for you, my Stegorax would still be with me today. But it is also thanks to you that Innsmouth is finally rid of the shadow that had loomed over it for two hundred years.” Marla said sadly.

“I’m sorry, Marla.” The Doctor replied.

“A Shadow over Innsmouth.” Howard remarked. “I might use that one.”

“Hey!” Peri perked up suddenly. “The Arkham Hotel is lacking some owners now. Perhaps you and your son could take it over and make it the new family business?”

Marla’s sad smile broadened ever so slightly.

“Yes. I think I would like that.” She agreed.

“Good bye! And good luck!” the Doctor declared and he led Peri into the TARDIS.

Seconds later the air was split by the howling grinding of the TARDIS engines. Howard and Marla stepped back with a little surprise as the police telephone box faded from their lives and departed for further adventures.

 

**The End**


End file.
